Remembering my father a WW2 vet and who is long gone said, if Hilter had his way he would have been dead and I wouldn't be here. As long as I live I will remember that he said he could forgive the Japanese who were poor uneducated peasants who were following their emperor, but he could never forgive the Germans.

Crafty, did you parents also refuse for the rest of their lives to buy anything German?

Now that is a very interesting question. I don't think they made a point of it, but I can't remember any VWs, BMWs, or Mercedes in the garage of any of my extended family-- some of whom were well-to-do.

I remember the first time I did a seminar in Switzerland. The dominant language was German (and Swiss German which is quite different. I am told a German usually does not understand Swiss German, but the Swiss Germans also speak German) which naturally served as an NLP anchor to every WW2 Euro theater movie memory that I ever had (and remember I am a born and raised New York City Jew). The specific trigger for my emotions was one particular man who was the viusal archetype of a death camp guard. A moment of deep introspection was triggered. Of course he actually was a very nice person!-- as was everyone there and I had a wonderful time.

While I think the DBMA/Dog Brothers message attracts the kind of people for whom this most certainly is NOT an issue, I think on a continent wide level anti-semitism never died ouot. In part out of fear of the Muslims within Europe and in part out of desire to model modern multi-culteralism, the Pravdas of mainstream Euro media have fed a stream of poppycock about Israel and Jews which has been imbibed as naturally and thoughtlessly as a fish breathes water.

Tragically, I think it is ready to be sparked in the fertile fields of human nature for scapegoating when times are bad the old hatred lurks.

After a six-year Zionist Organization of America campaign, the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights announced an important policy benefiting Jewish students in elementary, secondary and post-secondary schools. In a letter issued on October 26, OCR declared that it will enforce Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to protect Jewish students from harassment, intimidation and discrimination at federally funded schools.

This is a breakthrough. Until this announcement, OCR wouldn’t enforce Title VI to protect Jewish students, leaving them without the same civil rights protections that have been afforded to other ethnic and racial groups since Title VI’s enactment in 1964.

It was OCR’s policy denying Jews the protection of Title VI that largely accounted for the agency’s decision to dismiss the complaint the ZOA filed in 2004 on behalf of Jewish students at the University of California at Irvine. UCI students had been subjected to years of anti-Semitic harassment and intimidation, described in detail in the ZOA’s 11-page complaint to OCR.

Campus programs – with titles such as “A World Without Israel” and “Israel: The Fourth Reich” – routinely demonized Jews and Israel. Campus speakers condoned and even advocated terrorism against Israeli Jews. One frequently-invited speaker compared Jews to Satan, called them baby-killers and referred to them as “the new Nazis.” The verbal bigotry escalated into violence. Students were physically threatened and assaulted. A Holocaust memorial was destroyed, and swastikas defaced campus property.

UCI students repeatedly complained to administrators about feeling harassed and intimidated. Some were afraid to wear a Star of David or a pro-Israel T-shirt. Some even feared for their physical safety. At least two students left UCI and went to study elsewhere, because they couldn’t endure the anti- Semitic hostility anymore. Yet the administration either ignored students’ concerns or made superficial efforts to address them.

ZOA’s complaint sought to compel the administration to finally rectify the unrelenting campus anti- Semitism. OCR agreed to investigate the case – a landmark development. But after three years of OCR dragging its feet, the agency eventually dismissed the ZOA’s case. An article in September’s Commentary magazine confirmed that the agency’s dismissal was due primarily to its determination not to protect Jewish students under Title VI. The article also revealed that OCR investigators had actually concluded that the “ZOA was right that Irvine students faced levels of discrimination that were so severe, pervasive or objectively offensive as to limit their educational opportunities.”

IN CLARIFYING that it will now protect Jewish students from anti-Semitic harassment under Title VI, OCR has made several crucial points. First, while disciplining the perpetrators of the harassment is important, OCR says that it’s not enough. A school must take other remedial steps, such as counseling the perpetrators about their hurtful conduct, reaffirming the school’s antidiscrimination policy, publicizing how students may report harassment, training teachers to recognize and address anti- Semitic incidents and creating age-appropriate programs to educate students about the history and dangers of anti-Semitism.

In addition, OCR recommends that schools publicly label specific incidents as anti-Semitic. This is critical. We know firsthand from students that a school’s failure to publicly identify and condemn an incident as anti-Semitic is almost as hurtful as the incident itself. Intentionally or not, silence or beating around the bush about an anti- Semitic incident sends the message to the school community that anti-Semitism is acceptable and tolerable. It isn’t and, as OCR has recognized, school leaders should clearly and publicly condemn an incident as anti-Semitic when it occurs.

OCR says that schools not only must take steps to end the harassment; they must also prevent its recurrence. Speaking out will help reach that goal. OCR’s new policy of enforcing Title VI is a much needed development. UCI is just one example of campus anti-Semitism; Jewish college students have had problems from Columbia, to the University of North Dakota, to UC Berkeley and elsewhere. Anti-Semitic incidents have also occurred at elementary and secondary schools.

In Naples, Florida, middle schoolers held “kick a Jew” day in November 2009. Two students came to school that day wearing Adolph Hitler moustaches. The superintendent’s response was as offensive as the event itself. He said, “These kids kicked a bunch of kids. What’s the real crime here?” All schools will now feel a greater imperative to respond to these horrific incidents if they know that they could face consequences from OCR, including a loss of federal funding.

OCR should be praised for its new Title VI policy, but more work needs to be done. It’s critical that Title VI be amended so that the law explicitly protects Jewish students from harassment, intimidation and discrimination, thereby preventing an agency from undoing or diminishing that protection.

ZOA has been working closely with federal lawmakers to amend Title VI; in September, Sen. Arlen Specter and US Rep. Brad Sherman introduced a bill to fill the legal loophole so that religious discrimination is explicitly prohibited under Title VI, in the same way that racial and national origin discrimination is already forbidden. All of us should urge our senators and representatives to support this bill if we care about the ability of our children and grandchildren to get their education in an environment that’s physically and emotionally safe and conducive to learning.

Morton A. Klein is the president of the Zionist Organization of America, and Susan Tuchman is director of its Center for Law and Justice.

What follows is the Wall Street Journal full-page ad of an open letter from the Jewish Funds for Justice and signed by 400 rabbis calling on Fox News to sanction commentator Glenn Beck for his "over-the-top" attacks on George Soros. Kudos to Simon Greer and Mik Moore of Jewish Funds for Justice on this initiative.

Glenn Beck:George Soros, who as a child in Hungary survived the Holocaust by living with a non-Jewish family "used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here's a Jewish boy helping send the Jews to the death camps."November 11, 2010

Roger Ailes:There are some "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anyone can use the word 'Holocaust' on the air."November 16, 2010

"[NPR] are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left-wing of Nazism."November 17, 2010

Rabbis to Rupert Murdoch: 'Sanction Glenn Beck'An open letter on the occasion of UN Holocaust Remembrance Day

January 27, 2011 - Dear Mr. Murdoch, We are rabbis of diverse political views. As part of our work, we are devoted to preserving the memory of the Shoah, and to passing its lessons on to our future generations and to all humankind. All of us have vigorously defended the Holocaust's legacy. We have worked to encourage the responsible invocation of its symbols as a powerful lesson for the future.

We were therefore deeply offended by Roger Ailes' recent statement attributing the outrage over Glenn Beck's use of Holocaust and Nazi images to "left-wing rabbis who basically don't think that anybody can ever use the word 'Holocaust' on the air."

In the charged political climate in the current civic debate, much is tolerated, and much is ignored or dismissed. But you diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit any individual or organization you disagree with. That is what Fox News has done in recent weeks, and it is not only "left-wing rabbis" who think so.

Abe Foxman, National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, a child survivor of the Holocaust, described Beck's attack on George Soros as "not only offensive, but horrific, over-the-top, and out-of-line." Commentary Magazine said that "Beck's denunciation of him [Soros] is marred by ignorance and offensive innuendo." Elan Steinberg, vice president of The American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, called Mr. Beck's accusations "monstrous." Rev. Welton Gaddy, president of the Interfaith Alliance, called them "beyond repugnant." And Deborah Lipstadt, professor of Holocaust Studies at Emory University, says Beck is using traditional anti-Semitic imagery.

"I haven't heard anything like this on television or radio -- and I've been following this kind of stuff," Lipstadt said. "I've been in the sewers of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial more often than I've wanted."

We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News. It is not appropriate to accuse a 14-year-old Jew hiding with a Christian family in Nazi-occupied Hungary of sending his people to death camps. It is not appropriate to call executives of another news agency "Nazis." And it is not appropriate to make literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom you disagree.

It is because this issue has a profound impact on each of us, our families and our communities that we are calling on Fox News to meet the standard it has set for itself: "to exercise the ultimate sensitivity when referencing the Holocaust." We respectfully request that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and that Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis' sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air.

O Donnel had a couple of rabbis on yesterday discussing this though I came to it late.L. O Donnel who after watching the rabbis sound like a bunch of cackling yentas exclaimed how he can see how one can never get two rabbis to ever agree.

"We share a belief that the Holocaust, of course, can and should be discussed appropriately in the media. But that is not what we have seen at Fox News. It is not appropriate to accuse a 14-year-old Jew hiding with a Christian family in Nazi-occupied Hungary of sending his people to death camps."

I would agree with this in a second. Perhaps Beck does use the word Nazi too indiscriminantly. I think it highly likely Beck will respond to this and it will be interesting to see what he says.

OTOH I am offended by Soros subversive and behind the scenes tactics in changing America towards a progressive big government agenda that restricts our freedoms and is actually does have some similarities to the political upheavels of Europe IMHO.

Four-hundred lib rabbis — the kind that give sanctimonious sermons about the environment at Westchester synagogues — have banded together to slam Glenn Beck with a $100K ad in the Wall Street Journal. According to the clerics, Beck has been unfairly attacking George Soros for collaborating with the Nazis in WWII when the billionaire was a fourteen-year old — something that Soros himself admits and, incredibly, doesn’t feel guilty about.

Steve Kroft of 60 Minutes interviewed Soros about his “youth.” Given the rabbis’ WSJ ad, it seems worth reprinting a transcript of a significant part of that interview here:

KROFT: (Voiceover) And you watched lots of people get shipped off to the death camps.

Mr. SOROS: Right. I was 14 years old. And I would say that that’s when my character was made.

KROFT: In what way?

Mr. SOROS: That one should think ahead. One should understand and–and anticipate events and when–when one is threatened. It was a tremendous threat of evil. I mean, it was a–a very personal experience of evil.

KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.

KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.

KROFT: I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?

Mr. SOROS: Not–not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t–you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.

KROFT: No feeling of guilt?

Mr. SOROS: No.

KROFT: For example that, ‘I’m Jewish and here I am, watching these people go. I could just as easily be there. I should be there.’ None of that?Mr. SOROS: Well, of course I c–I could be on the other side or I could be the one from whom the thing is being taken away. But there was no sense that I shouldn’t be there, because that was–well, actually, in a funny way, it’s just like in markets–that if I weren’t there–of course, I wasn’t doing it, but somebody else would–would–would be taking it away anyhow. And it was the–whether I was there or not, I was only a spectator, the property was being taken away. So the–I had no role in taking away that property. So I had no sense of guilt.

Wow. All I can say is wow. That lack of guilt has always been astounding to me and an indication of who Soros really is. (Hello, rabbis.)

Nevertheless, these goody-goody rabbis think Beck is the problem, not Soros. They blame Beck for going over the top in his speech (where have we heard that before?), misusing the memory of the Holocaust, etc., but no word of the “misuse of speech” by Soros-funded MoveOn.org that famously made a video comparing George Bush to Hitler, something that has been scrubbed from the Internet but can be found here.

Talk about misusing the memory of the Holocaust. But I guess it wasn’t worth $100K.

As the Torah says Thou shalt not go up and down as a tale-bearer among thy people (Lev. 19:16). The ancient Jewish Sages took that passage and said that there are three transgressions that would cause a man to lose his place in the world to come: murder, adultery, and idol worship, and that loshon hora (evil speech) is equivalent to all three (Bab. Erchin 15b). Jews believe that the harm done by telling tales about people is worse than the harm done by something like theft because one can repay stolen money, but harm done by speech can never be repaired.

In today’s Wall Street Journal, 400 Rabbis joined with a socialist Jewish organization called Jewish Funds for Justice (JFJ) to bring shame upon themselves, their holy profession and the entire Jewish people, and even worse have committed a Chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name) with an open letter to Fox News against Glenn Beck (the full ad is embedded below).

The letter states, “In the charged political climate in the current civic debate, much is tolerated, and much is ignored or dismissed. But you diminish the memory and meaning of the Holocaust when you use it to discredit any individual or organization you disagree with. That is what Fox News has done in recent weeks, and it is not only ‘left-wing rabbis’ who think so.”

Mr. Beck’s three-day series defaming Holocaust survivor George Soros sparked the letter from rabbis. At that time, Mr. Beck claimed Mr. Soros survived the Holocaust as 14-year-old boy by collaborating with the Nazis to send other Jews to the death camps. Mr. Beck said, that Mr. Soros “used to go around with this anti-Semite and deliver papers to the Jews and confiscate their property and then ship them off. And George Soros was part of it. He would help confiscate the stuff. It was frightening. Here’s a Jewish boy helping send Jews to the death camps.”

Mr. Beck’s three-day attack on Mr. Soros was hardly the first time he has misused the Holocaust to incite viewers. The rabbis’ note Mr. Beck has made “literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom [Beck] disagree.” Beck routinely compares American leaders to Nazis, has likened his crusade against progressives to that of “Israeli Nazi Hunters,” and has said that putting the “common good” first leads to “death camps.”

In the face of mounting criticism by Jewish groups, Fox News chief Roger Ailes dismissed criticism of Mr. Beck in an interview with the Daily Beast as nothing more than “left-wing rabbis who basically don’t think that anybody can ever use the word ‘Holocaust’ on the air.”

We respectfully request that Glenn Beck be sanctioned by Fox News for his completely unacceptable attacks on a survivor of the Holocaust and Roger Ailes apologize for his dismissive remarks about rabbis’ sensitivity to how the Holocaust is used on the air.”

Loshen Hora is not permitted even when true, but in this case there is nothing to worry about because it’s not true. I can guarantee you not one of these Rabbis are listeners of Beck, because if they were, they would know that he hadn’t as the letter they signed said made, literally hundreds of on-air references to the Holocaust and Nazis when characterizing people with whom [Beck] disagree. According to Jewish law, if they sign a letter saying that Beck made hundreds of on air references they should see the proof. So I ask Rabbi Steven Wernick, Executive Vice President, United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the movement of Judaism of which my family and I are members, where’s the proof? To Rabbi Daniel Nevins, Dean, Jewish Theological Seminary Rabbinical School which recognized my wife and me for community service who also signed the letter, I ask: is this what you want to teach the rabbis of tomorrow? I invite any of the Rabbis who signed this letter did you watch the three day Soros series or did you just read the partial transcript sent to you? Did you know that almost everything that Beck said in those three days came directly out of the mouth of George Soros?

If any of these 400 rabbis has any proof for the charges you signed, contact me and show me the proof if you can–but they can’t. Even worse, they didn’t even ask for the proof before they lent their names to organized loshen hora.

The Jewish Fund for Justice is waging this battle against Glenn Beck as an agent of George Soros. The group receives significant funding Soros’ Open Society Institute, which gave the organization $30,000 in 2008, $150,000 in 2009 and $200,000 in 2010, (H/T Ken Larrey). I wonder if any of the Rabbis who signed this letter knew the motivation, or that before Beck did his three day special on Soros, there was a meeting between senior staff of the two and Soros’ guy warned Beck’s not to do the expose? Of course not! A true rabbi would have called Beck and asked for his side; none did.

Soros’ funding is only part of the story, the Jewish Funds for Justice’ progressive message of redistribution of income and social justice, and the continued collective guilt of Whites (especially Men) is antithetical to Beck’s call for personal (vs government) responsibility and charity, along with a constitutional guarantee of equal opportunity for all (as opposed to a guarantee of equal result).

On its website the Jewish Funds For Justice has a online library of articles, leadership and facilitation exercises, templates, and other helpful resources for you to utilize in your organizations. Feel free to download and share any of these materials.

An entire section of the library is about the “White Man” as the oppressor. A series of articles which say even if they don’t know it, the Caucasian is a racist and an oppressor, which gives insight into their beliefs behind social justice. This position seems to echo some of the positions of Black Liberation Theology, which have been exposed by the Fox broadcaster. The thought that we are collectively guilty and our salvation will only come if we collectively repent against the social crimes that we have done.

For example, one of the articles in their library is called Male Privilege and White Privilege” by Peggy McIntosh

I think whites are carefully taught not to recognize white privilege, as males are taught not to recognize male privilege. So I have begun in an untutored way to ask what it is like to have white privilege. This paper is a partial record of my personal observations and not a scholarly analysis. It is based on my daily experiences within my particular circumstances.

I have come to see white privilege as an invisible package of unearned assets that I can count on cashing in each day, but about which I was “meant” to remain oblivious. White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, assurances, tools, maps, guides, code-books, passports, visas, clothes, compass, emergency gear, and blank checks.

Another called The Culture of White Supremacy argues that the culture in the US is “White Culture” and that culture

…is intertwined with other major cultural manifestations of the is U.S: the greed competition and individualism of capitalism; male supremacist fear and hatred of the power of women; historical Christianity’s hatred and fear of sexuality, and its compulsion to divide humankind into the “saved” and the “dammed;” and the militarism’s glorification of war and conquests as proof of manhood and nationhood that has roots in European culture going back thousands of years.

White culture is a melting pot of greed, guys, guns and God. Its a deadly brew.

The document also claims that calls for people to take personal responsibility is just another way of keeping the non-White races inferior.

Many of the other documents in that section promote the same view that all Whites (especially White Men) are racist oppressors including:

With the belief that Whites continue to oppress the non-whites, it’s no wonder they believe in Government-led social justice. The Government has to do it, because the Caucasian Man either wont or doesn’t realize that he should.

JFJ has developed seminary programs to prepare rabbinical students for “the challenges of engaging their communities in the critical and profoundly Jewish work of meaningful social justice” — i.e., the redistribution of wealth. These seminary programs are outgrowths of JFJ’s emphasis on “congregation-based community organizing” (CBCO), which is described by Benjamin Ross, JFJ’s Director of Organizing, as “a social change strategy developed by Saul Alinsky.” Aiming to “challenge [religious] congregations to address systemic issues relating to poverty and social injustice,” this type of organizing is spearheaded by four major national CBCO networks: the Alinsky-founded Industrial Areas Foundation, the PICO National Network, the Direct Action Research and Training Center, and the Gamaliel Foundation. JFJ works in partnership with local affiliates of each of these organizations.

Another part of the motivation behind the attacks is many of the key figures of the JFJ are involved with other organizations/people who have been exposed by Beck. For example:

* Rabbi David Saperstein, who is on the JFJ Board, serves on Obama’s faith advisory board and served on many boards with of Rev. Jim Wallis who has also led attacks on Glenn Beck. Saperstein is also on the board of the People for the American Way Foundation, which was formed by the Tides Foundation. The Tides Foundation gets much of its funding from George Soros.

* Mik Moore Chief Strategy Officer at Jewish Funds for Justice is the former Deputy Political Director at SEIU Local 32B

* Until 2008 Simon Greer attended the residency program of the Windcall Institute, a project of the Common Counsel Foundation. Van Jones serves on the advisory board of the Windcall institute.

* Si Kahn who is on the board of JFJ was the founder and until last year the Executive director of Grassroots Leadership, which received $130,000 from Soros’ Open Society Institute in 2008 (which was the latest tax return I could find).

Notice the pattern?

In the end what the Wall Street Journal ad today represents is a slander made by 400 Rabbis who did not even bother to check to see if what they were signing is true, driven by JFJ a political organizations whose politics run contra to those of Glenn Beck. Both the organization and its leadership are beholden to George Soros who sent a Representative to threaten Beck for his expose’ and/or others who have campaigned against Glenn Beck. In other words, this “open letter” published in today’s Wall Street Journal, is nothing but an attempt to slander someones name for political reasons.

I hope that the 400 rabbis who have committed this Loshen Hora, caused all of this shame and have desecrated the name of god Chillul Hashem (desecration of God’s name) realize the error of their ways, not that their offense could ever be totally rectified.

As an old Chasidic tale teaches: A man once went around spreading lies about the rabbi. Eventually he began to feel remorse for the wrong he had done. He went to the rabbi and begged his forgiveness, saying he would do anything to make amends. The rabbi said, “Take a feather pillow, cut it open, and scatter the feathers to the winds.” The man followed the request gladly. When he told the rabbi that he had done the task, the rabbi said, “Now, go try and gather the feathers.” The man said, “But Rabbi I cannot gather the feathers they are all scatter to the winds.” The Rabbi replied, “Exactly! You cannot take back the damage your words have done, the same way you cannot than recollect the feathers.”Jewish Funds for Justice Wall Street Journal Ad

Great find GM! What do you say to this Rachel? Here is Soros himself admitting he felt no guilt. It wasn't even "difficult"! While I don't blame him for doing what he had to to save himself 14 years old is enough to know what one is doing. How do you explain this? Why are not these same liberal rabbis not offended by this? To think one could watch and even be forced to participate sending your own people away to their death and admit to not one ioda of regret or guilt??Well I doubt this master of Wall Street who spends his entire life beating the hell out of everyone he can in trying to make a buck is just as ruthless there as he seems here in this interview:

KROFT: My understanding is that you went out with this protector of yours who swore that you were his adopted godson.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. Yes.

KROFT: Went out, in fact, and helped in the confiscation of property from the Jews.

Mr. SOROS: Yes. That’s right. Yes.

KROFT: I mean, that’s–that sounds like an experience that would send lots of people to the psychiatric couch for many, many years. Was it difficult?

Mr. SOROS: Not–not at all. Not at all. Maybe as a child you don’t–you don’t see the connection. But it was–it created no–no problem at all.

I am sickened by the attack on Soros. If you don't understand the world Soros was living in and you prefer him to be murdered that is your problem. Glenn Beck deserved harsh condemnation for his comments.

George Soros is one of the most powerful men on earth. A New York hedge fund manager, he has amassed a personal fortune estimated at about $13 billion (as of 2009). His management company controls billions more in investor assets. Since 1979, Soros' foundation network -- whose flagship is the Open Society Institute (OSI) -- has dispensed more than $5 billion to a multitude of organizations whose objectives are consistent with those of Soros. (The President of OSI and the Soros Foundation Network is Aryeh Neier, former Director of the socialist League for Industrial Democracy.) With assets of $1.93 billion as of 2008, OSI alone donates scores of millions of dollars annually to these various groups, whose major agendas can be summarized as follows:

* promoting the view that America is institutionally an oppressive nation * promoting the election of leftist political candidates throughout the United States * opposing virtually all post-9/11 national security measures enacted by U.S. government, particularly the Patriot Act * depicting American military actions as unjust, unwarranted, and immoral * promoting open borders, mass immigration, and a watering down of current immigration laws * promoting a dramatic expansion of social welfare programs funded by ever-escalating taxes * promoting social welfare benefits and amnesty for illegal aliens * defending suspected anti-American terrorists and their abetters * financing the recruitment and training of future activist leaders of the political Left * advocating America’s unilateral disarmament and/or a steep reduction in its military spending * opposing the death penalty in all circumstances * promoting socialized medicine in the United States * promoting the tenets of radical environmentalism, whose ultimate goal, as writer Michael Berliner has explained, is “not clean air and clean water, [but] rather ... the demolition of technological/industrial civilization” * bringing American foreign policy under the control of the United Nations * promoting racial and ethnic preferences in academia and the business world alike

To view a list of many of the more important organizations that support these agendas and have received direct funding from Soros and his Open Society Institute in recent years, click here. (Comprehensive profiles of each are available in the "Groups" category of DiscoverTheNetworks.org.)

There are also numerous “secondary” or “indirect” affiliates of the Soros network. These include organizations which do not receive direct funding from Soros and OSI, but which are funded by one or more organizations that do. These secondary affiliates also include organizations that work collaboratively or synergistically with Soros-funded groups. To view a list of some of these organizations, click here. (Comprehensive profiles of each are available in the "Groups" category of DiscoverTheNetworks.org.)

In one of his most significant and effective efforts to shape the American political landscape, Soros was the prime mover in the creation of the so-called "Shadow Democratic Party," or "Shadow Party," in 2003. This term refers to a nationwide network of more than five-dozen unions, non-profit activist groups, and think tanks whose agendas are ideologically to the left, and which are engaged in campaigning for the Democrats. This network's activities include fundraising, get-out-the-vote drives, political advertising, opposition research, and media manipulation.

The Shadow Party was conceived and organized principally by George Soros, Hillary Clinton and Harold McEwan Ickes -- all identified with the Democratic Party left. Other key players included:

To develop the Shadow Party as a cohesive entity, Harold Ickes undertook the task of building a 21st-century version of the Left's traditional alliance of the "oppressed" and "disenfranchised." By the time Ickes was done, he had created or helped to create six new groups, and had co-opted a seventh called MoveOn.org. Together, these seven groups constituted the administrative core of the newly formed Shadow Party:

These organizations, along with the many leftist groups with which they collaborate, have played a major role in helping Soros advance his political and social agendas.

According to Richard Poe, co-author (with David Horowitz) of the 2006 book The Shadow Party:

"The Shadow Party is the real power driving the Democrat machine. It is a network of radicals dedicated to transforming our constitutional republic into a socialist hive. The leader of these radicals is ... George Soros. He has essentially privatized the Democratic Party, bringing it under his personal control. The Shadow Party is the instrument through which he exerts that control. ... It works by siphoning off hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions that would have gone to the Democratic Party in normal times, and putting those contributions at the personal disposal of Mr. Soros. He then uses that money to buy influence and loyalty where he sees fit. In 2003, Soros set up a network of privately-owned groups which acts as a shadow or mirror image of the Party. It performs all the functions we would normally expect the real Democratic Party to perform, such as shaping the Party platform, fielding candidates, running campaigns, and so forth. However, it performs these functions under the private supervision of Mr. Soros and his associates. The Shadow Party derives its power from its ability to raise huge sums of money. By controlling the Democrat purse strings, the Shadow Party can make or break any Democrat candidate by deciding whether or not to fund him. During the 2004 election cycle, the Shadow Party raised more than $300 million for Democrat candidates, prompting one of its operatives, MoveOn PAC director Eli Pariser, to declare, 'Now it’s our party. We bought it, we own it…'"

Soros in 2004 spent some $26 million trying, unsuccessfully, to defeat President Bush’s reelection bid, a task Soros called “the central focus of my life” and “a matter of life and death.” He has likened Republicans generally, and the Bush administration in particular, to “the Nazi and communist regimes” in the sense that they are “all engaged in the politics of fear.” “Indeed,” he wrote in 2006, “the Bush administration has been able to improve on the techniques used by the Nazi and Communist propaganda machines by drawing on the innovations of the advertising and marketing industries.” Soros elaborated on this theme at the January 2007 World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, where he told reporters: “America needs to . . . go through a certain de-Nazification process.”

Soros has been a staunch supporter of Hillary Clinton, who, in turn, has long admired Soros and shares many of his agendas. At a 2004 "Take Back America" conference in Washington, DC, Mrs. Clinton introduced Soros with these words:

“Now, among the many people who have stood up and said, ‘I cannot sit by and let this happen to the country I love,’ is George Soros, and I have known George Soros for a long time now, and I first came across his work in the former Soviet Union, in Eastern Europe, when I was privileged to travel there, both on my own and with my husband on behalf of our country. ... [W]e need people like George Soros, who is fearless, and willing to step up when it counts.” (Cited in David Horowitz and Richard Poe, The Shadow Party, p. 53)

In December of 2006, Soros met with Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama in his (Soros') New York office. Soros had previously hosted a fundraiser for Obama during the latter's 2004 campaign for the Senate. On January 16, 2007, Obama announced the creation of a presidential exploratory committee, and within hours Soros sent the senator a contribution of $2,100, the maximum amount allowable under campaign finance laws. Later that week the New York Daily News reported that Soros would back Obama over Senator Hillary Clinton, whom he had supported in the past. Soros' announcement was seen as a repudiation of Clinton's presidential aspirations, though Soros said he would support the New York senator were she to win the Democratic nomination.

By the time Obama was elected, it was clear that his economic and political prescriptions for America were quite consistent with those of Soros. For example, in a November 2008 interview with Spiegel, Soros made some comments which foreshadowed precisely the course that President Obama's administration would eventually pursue in 2009. Said Soros:

"I think we need a large stimulus package which will provide funds for state and local government to maintain their budgets ... For such a program to be successful, the federal government would need to provide hundreds of billions of dollars. In addition, another infrastructure program is necessary. In total, the cost would be in the 300 to 600 billion dollar range…. I think this is a great opportunity to finally deal with global warming and energy dependence. The U.S. needs a cap and trade system with auctioning of licenses for emissions rights. I would use the revenues from these auctions to launch a new, environmentally friendly energy policy."

The interviewer then said: "Your proposal would be dismissed on Wall Street as 'big government.' Republicans might call it European-style 'socialism.'" Soros replied:

"That is exactly what we need now. I am against market fundamentalism. I think this propaganda that government involvement is always bad has been very successful -- but also very harmful to our society…. I think it is better to have a government that wants to provide good government than a government that doesn't believe in government…. At times of recession, running a budget deficit is highly desirable."

To gain some perspective on the massive levels of funding that George Soros lavishes on the far Left, be sure to view this vital document:

Organizations Funded Directly by George Soros and his Open Society Institute

Reading this I conclude that Soros is the "chosen one" in his own mind.

Obama is his front man.

Like I said without some very liberal Jews Obama would never have been President.

European style socialism already has proven to be a dud like every other socialistic government.

Why he thinks that government is the answer to all of human kinds ills, when it is run by people with same frailties as the rest of us is a mystery to me.

He is clearly an enemy of the US as we know it.

Yet we have MSM like SoloDAD acting like the front man Obama is not a far lefty. And anyone who even states that is nuts or brainwashed.

Beck is certainly no anti semite from anything I have seen or heard.

You know what? Jews do NOT have some sort of monopoly on hos to speak or mention genocide or even specifically the Jewish holocaust. They do not own genocide or have some special right to decide who gets to refer to it or how. Like their attack on Sarah Palin because she used a phrase. If she were a Democrat liberal we would never had heard a peep from any of the Liberal Jews.

The George Soros funded Media Matters has been waging a months-long attack on Glenn Beck trying to brand the commentator as a card carrying anti-Semite. Perhaps before making false charges against Beck, Media Matters should examine its own house of cards.

In a column published today on Media Matters political correction site, MJ Rosenberg claimed that the current Egyptian crisis was the fault of AIPAC and the "Israel Lobby." For those of you who have lived on a different planet till today, "Israel Lobby" is a polite way of saying "Jews." It is based on the old anti-Semitic canard that it is the Jews who control the United States government.

Two years ago, Media Matters who has received major funding from financier George Soros, hired Rosenberg, a Jew to chip away at the image of the Jewish State, similar to what Soros did in creating J-Street. MJ Rosenberg was perfect for this role as Jewish-Lobby conspiracy theorist, bully with a keyboard, and a self-proclaimed violator of national security.

To be honest I have only crossed paths with Rosenberg's writing twice before, in the matter of Chas Freeman President Obama's pick for NIC Chairman who was a tool for both the Saudi and Chinese government and in the matter of Steve Rosen, the former AIPAC who was wrongly charged with espionage (the charges were dropped this year). In both cases, Rosenberg’s strategy has been is to attack people personally, throw around the “N” word (neo-con), twist words around (including mine) and accuse those of us who differ from his point of view as hell-bent to run the foreign policy of the United States of America.

In today's piece, Rosenberg says the reason for the Egyptian rebellion is the failure to resolve the Israeli/Palestinian issue:

If one needs additional proof that the "pro-Israel" lobby and the policies it dictates to US policymakers are bad for both the U.S. and Israel, look no further than what is happening in Egypt.

The regime that the Israeli government and its U.S. lobby have depended upon to enforce the status quo is going down. It is not clear when, but it's going to be soon, much sooner than anyone ever anticipated. And you can be sure that any democratic government that takes Mubarak's place is not going to play the role of America's (let alone Israel's) enforcer in the Middle East.

Hopefully, the Israeli-Egyptian peace treaty will survive — thousands of lives on both sides have been saved by President Carter's Camp David Treaty — but there are no guarantees. Far from it.

Of course, no one would even be worried about the peace treaty if the Israelis had agreed to implement the critical second part of the Camp David Accords.

That was the part that would have ended the occupation. But the Israelis chose to ignore it and the lobby and the ever-faithful Congress blocked Carter's efforts to push it through.

Its interesting that when one goes through the Wikileaks documents about the Middle East not the secret cables ties the Palestinian/Israel to issues in the other countries. In both the recent unrest in Tunisia and in Egypt not once was there a mention of the Palestinians or Israelis except for mentioning the fact that both parties would prefer to see Mubarak remain in power.

Rosenberg indicates that the reason for the lack of Israeli/Palestinian peace is Israel, Congress and of course the Israel (Jewish) Lobby. I guess he forgot the fact that Yasser Arafat walked away from a favorable deal at the end of the Clinton Administration and Mahmoud Abbas walked away from a similar deal at the end of the Bush Administration.

I am often accused of harping on the lobby's baleful influence. I plead guilty. But it's my obligation because (1) I know from personal experience — 15 years on Capitol Hill and four at AIPAC — how it operates, (2) I know how little it really cares about Israel, and (3) I am free to tell the truth about it. If I worked in the mainstream media or in the U.S. government, I wouldn't be.

How do you like that, we Jews control US foreign policy and the run the media--damn we are good. But wait there is more, according to MJ Rosenberg of Media Matters if it wasn't for the Jews, American would be best friends with Iran.

Another area where the lobby has done so much damage is in our relations with Iran.

AIPAC is dedicated to "crippling" sanctions and eventually war with Iran if sanctions don't bring down the regime. Later this spring, AIPAC will host its annual conference which will, as has been the case for a decade, feature mind-numbing warnings about the danger posed by an Iranian nuclear bomb.

Dang those Jews are so horrible. Not only do we control everything, but we made the last two Presidents push sanctions on those innocent Iranians and those sanctions are only being imposed to help Israel. Wow the guilt is going to keep me awake for days.

Perhaps the Media Matters columnist should have read the recent accounts released by Wikileaks

According to the leaked document, part of the conversation between King Abdullah and the US officials touched on Saudi attitudes towards Iran, its influence in Iraq and the need to increase pressure on the Islamic Republic.

By themselves, they do not present a lot of evidence. OTOH Ron Paul has a very dicey history on this front. A newsletter sent out under his name for several years had some pretty bad stuff in it, which RP blamed on an unsupervised employee. Also, not proof, but a favorite RP theme is "international banker conspiracy", a possibility I don't deny, but an idea often intertwined with some pretty vile anti-semitism.

I didn't have any clue of that. David Horowitz is a strong conservative.

"international banker conspiracy"

I don't think there is a Jewish conspiracy in that regard but there may be a disproportionate number of Jews who are bankers, like doctors, and lawyers.

There is without a doubt a disproportionate number of Jews who are progressive.

From the alleged jornolist posted on this board a fully 40% of the names were consistent with Jewish names. Jews make up what? 1 or 2% of the US population.

My guess is Jews are not running around trying to get non Jews but happen to just be active in this area and since there is a disprotionate number of them in the forefront it may give the appearance of a "conspiracy".

As for a "conspiracy" for supporting Israel - I would prefer to look at it as Jews working hard to preserve and protect fellow Jews who are threatened with annhilation every day.

You said, "but there may be a disproportionate number of Jews who are bankers, like doctors, and lawyers."Gosh, if I had a son or daughter, isn't that what I would want them to become? Did I miss something?

Jews are "progressive"?I didn't know that was bad!

"since there is a disprotionate number of them in the forefront". "Jews make up what? 1 or 2% of the US population."yet they are in the "forefront". Why I ask? Success? Hard work? Discipline? Religious? Academic? Educated? Entrepreneurial? Loyal? Intelligent? Hmmm it all sounds good to me.

And "conspiracy" for supporting Israel.....CCP, I would have no respect for you if you didn't support Israel everyday. I regret that Jews migrate to Israel only because Americaloses good people. I may disagree with you on some issues, I support what's good for America first, I don't think Israel's policy always coincides with America,and I am not a Jew, but there is no "conspiracy" among the Jews that I can see; only love for one's homeland as a refuge for having been oppressed. And I don't think that's bad.Hardly a "conspiracy".

JDN, I think CCP did not want to directly say that Jewish people in America are disproportionately successful. So I said it and you said it. Of course that is not a bad thing but people with small minds resent other people's success.

Hopefully Ron Paul is old enough to stop running for anything and focus on pushing his best issue which is smaller government. He was also at the forefront of 'end the Fed', a misguided, lost cause (IMHO) and in opposing foreign military operations. I think he largely opposes our strong commitment to defending Israel for isolationist type non-interventionist reasons, not anti-semitism. That is where conservatism and libertarianism split. There is a moral case for defending Israel, freeing Iraq etc. and a strategic reason: Israel is on the front line of our fight. If you disagree with the strategic reason, there is still a moral reason IMO.

Attracted to Ron Paul's viewpoint to not defend Israel might be people with anti-semitism. Like Reagan has said, if they endorse his view it doesn't mean he endorses theirs.

Jewish people have a connection with defending Judaism in Israel, just like I want golf protected in Scotland (okay I'm bad with analogies). Given the small proportion of Jews in America, I would explain the interest in defending of Israel by most of the rest of us differently. We support and defend Israel because they are under attack. In other words the attackers chose the venue and the motive, not those of us defending them. If India or Japan today or Canada was under similar attack, I would hope our foreign policy would put the focus in those places.

Doug, I was trying to be humorous; yet serious in my sincere compliments towards Jews and their success.

I know little of Ron Paul. I ignored him in my post.

That said, I am not sure that we always support and agree with the policies of India, Japan, or Canada. Nor do we always or blindly support them.For example, we support Pakistan, India's enemy. We remained quiet as GM pointed out in Japan's dispute over their Islands although we have a defense pact. Nor do we give billions of dollars every year in foreign aid to these countries.

People criticize Obama, yet despite criticism from both sides he vetoed a UN Resolution condemning further settlements at great cost to America.Frankly, I think there is a reasonable argument to stop and or postpone further settlements. But this belongs on another post.

My sole point here; I think one can be pro Jew and yet disagree with some of the policies of Israel. That does not make me anti-semetic.

Thanks JDN. Good points. The reference to those countries that I meant was that IF they were in the same situation, with 10 or 12 countries around them actively committed to their destruction, I would hope our foreign policy would have a focus on helping them. Obviously we don't blindly support Israel, I think we condemned them this week for peaceful activities that offend people trying to destroy them. People like you or Obama are not anti-semitic for disagreeing on specific policies. We just rightfully argue the wisdom of our policies.

Obama wants to be even-handed to settle ancient differences. I see that like wanting to be even handed with a rapist and a young woman walking down a street.

I drifted to Ron Paul because of previous points in the thread. I think racism is a form of stupidity, and anti semitism loosely defined is a form of racism. Ron Paul I would argue isn't stupid, (maybe unwise in some of his positions) certainly inattentive in what got posted on his site. In the case of Hitler and today's dangerous movements, it may be more a form of empowering themselves by praying off of the stupidity of others. In the Cairo crowd attacking the reporter, they were hollering 'Jew'. They were wrong about her but still how other than stupidity would that justify what THEY were doing? No one here, nor Ron Paul nor our President nor any serious or intelligent person would believe that it did.

Greece, more than many European nations, continues to wrestle with strong anti-Jewish feelings. Such sentiments have been revived amid the angst and anger of the Greek economic crisis.

By Anthee Carassava, Los Angeles Times

February 21, 2011

Reporting from Athens

Nearly 70 years later, Athens, one of the last European capitals to commemorate those who perished at the hands of Nazi forces, finally has a Holocaust memorial.But since its dedication in May, synagogues have been targeted, Jewish cemeteries desecrated, Holocaust monuments elsewhere in Greece vandalized and the Jewish Museum of Greece, in the capital, defaced with swastikas. What's more, an alarming chunk of Athenians in November supported the election of a neo-Nazi candidate to the capital's city council.

The ocher-colored marble sculpture in the shape of a broken-up Star of David, its triangular tips dismembered, points toward the 29 Greek cities from which at least 60,000 Jews were gathered and deported to the Auschwitz and Treblinka extermination camps between 1943 and 1944.The deaths of these victims are memorialized amid striking serenity. Set within a patch of olive and almond trees, and its pieces embedded alongside an herb garden of lavender, marjoram and thyme, the sculpture symbolizes survival and healing. Or is supposed to.

Although anti-Semitism is an old and shameful part of Europe's history, Greece, more than many European nations, continues to wrestle with strong anti-Jewish feelings.Such sentiments have been revived amid the angst and anger of the Greek economic crisis."We've always been under siege by fanatics and far-right political movements here," said David Saltiel, president of the Central Jewish Board of Greece, which represents the country's 6,000 Jews. "The fear now is that anti-Semitism will get worse with the financial crisis."

Well into the nation's worst recession in 17 years, the government in Athens was thrown a bailout lifeline of $146 billion by the European Union and International Monetary Fund last year in exchange for draconian reforms and cost-cutting measures designed to slash the country's yawning budget deficit, equal to 15.4% of gross domestic product.The measures are thought to be responsible for a surge in hate crimes against minorities by Greeks venting rage over rising unemployment and immigration.Strapped for cash, the Socialist government has been aggressively wooing rich sovereign investors, tapping into deep pockets in China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and, now, Israel.

This month, scores of Jewish American leaders arrived in Athens to advance Israel's revived relations with Greece, but not all here were happy to see yarmulkes on Greek streets, much less in the offices of senior politicians, including the country's president."We're in danger!" warned renowned composer Mikis Theodorakis, who in the course of a television interview openly conceded that he was an anti-Semite. "Zionism and it leaders are here, meeting in our country!"This is no laughing matter," he railed, berating Zionism and its "control over America and the banking system that Greece is now a victim of."

Such beliefs aren't new. Nor are they just Greek.What's different in Greece is the level of tolerance for anti-Semitism."There is zip, zilch, zero reaction to any semblance of anti-Semitism," said human rights activist Panayotes Dimitras, "leaving the door wide-open for extremists to come in and exploit this phobic society, more so now, in this time of crisis."

Some critics fault the country's Jewish organizations for shunning quick public reaction to attacks; others point to the attitude of some church prelates and to Greece's failure to come to terms with its once-multicultural identity and harrowing past."Whatever the cause," said Anna Stai of the Anti-Nazi Initiative, "Greece can no longer sit in denial about its anti-Jewish feelings. It's dangerous."

Take the case of Konstantinos Plevris.A self-avowed anti-Semite and Holocaust denier, the 70-year-old lawyer was sentenced to 14 months in prison in 2007 for inciting racial hatred with his book "Jews: The Whole Truth." In 2009, the decision was overturned, and a year later, the Supreme Court upheld Plevris' acquittal, arguing that his "scientific work" did not target the Jews as a race or religion but, rather, their "conspiratorial pursuit of global domination," according to a copy of the 2010 decision.

World Jewish organizations kicked up a storm in protest, but in Athens, mainstream news media offered scant coverage of the ruling and the government remained silent.Two weeks ago, Stai and other members of the Anti-Nazi Initiative traveled to Brussels to lobby for support from European lawmakers."There is such a strong undercurrent of anti-Jewish feeling in Greece," said Dimitras, the human rights activist, "that any hope of drawing attention to the problem must now come from outside pressure."

Others say there is still hope within."We're at a turning point as a society today," said Zanet I. Battinou, standing before a scale model of the Holocaust memorial showcased at the Jewish Museum of Greece, which she directs. "If we found the courage to take on responsibility for the financial mess we find ourselves in today, then we can take responsibility in facing down one of our worst traits."If anything, she quips, "we're running out of scapegoats."

Greece, more than many European nations, continues to wrestle with strong anti-Jewish feelings. Such sentiments have been revived amid the angst and anger of the Greek economic crisis.

By Anthee Carassava, Los Angeles Times

February 21, 2011

Reporting from Athens

Well, I have been living in Greece for quite a few years now, and although I haven't checked the facts of this article, my personal opinion is that it is not quite accurate. Living and working in Greece, I feel that people here are A LOT more concerned with other matters, than anti-semitism. The "lets blame the Jews" slant of this article seems to be designed to ruffle Jewish and American feathers. I can say from personal experience, the many Pakistanis, Bulgarian Gypsies, Albanians, and Romanians living in the center of Athens, concern everyday Greeks much more than Jewish people.

Greeks are more concerned about rising prices, crime rate, and loss of income, than being anti-semetic. These are very serious and very real concerns that are affecting me, and many people around me. I have yet to personally see or hear of a single case of anyone blaming the Jews. I have seen and heard numerous cases of other peoples (I referred to above) being blamed. In fact, I have also heard many Greeks declaring that they dislike Americans (or more specifically American Foreign Policy). Not heard any complaint about the Jewish though.

"In fact, I have also heard many Greeks declaring that they dislike Americans (or more specifically American Foreign Policy)"

Here the main stream media would have us believe that Obama has done a lot to improve our image overseas.Do you think this is true from you vantage point?

Obama is perceived as not quite so ready to resort to military action, as was his predecessor and those around him (Cheney, et al).

So I do believe that yes, the current US administration, is viewed more favorably than the previous one.

Clinton was very UNpopular due to his bombing of Serbia - not just because of Greece's traditional relationshipwith Serbia (both are of the Eastern Orthodox faith), but also because Greeks were worried that the actualcompounds used in the bombs themselves contained cancer-causing agents, and would affect the healthnot just of the Serbs, but also the population of Northern Greece.

However, the Greeks right now have a lot of problems they themselves have created, and have to face up to. The more "responsible" Greeks will admit that Greek society itself is largely to blame. But there are also many whoprefer to lay most of the blame elsewhere.

As for racism in Greece, there is a strange sort of "reverse racism", that has some (especially the media) beingextremely sensitive to minority rights, so much so that it leaves me wondering. Greeks are not usually soconcerned about their fellow man. Many involved in business think little of cheating one another.

It is interesting to note that successive governments have cynically exploited immigrants by charging them quitea bit of money to renew their residency permits. That money does not necessarily find its way into state coffers.

In Greek politics, the digger one deeps, the more disgusted one becomes. But as for the Jewish, who here really thinks thatthey are an issue ? The waves of immigrants from Pakistan, Afghanistan, Albania, Africa, etc are an issue. The Jewish are not.

P.S. Mikis Thedorakis, the famous composer quoted in the article may or may not be anti-semetic. As he ages, he is known to do or say things that will attract attention to him. I don't think his attention-seeking statements are taken seriously by many. He was, in his youth, courageous and a revolutionary, but he is now in his 80's and not at the forefront of things anymore (unless it is to receive some sort of award)

As for the far-right, they are more concerned with Pakistanis, Afghans, blacks - the visible minorities, than the Jews. The far right, just like the far-left, have always existed - they play on people's insecurities.

Greeks have always been a seafaring nation, a nation in contact with many cultures - though they have their faults, in my opinion, they are not racist in the sense that they instinctively dislike foreigners. Greeks are concerned about what the legions of ill-paid young men from other countries will do, now that there are less jobs and less money.

JDN,I thought you are a TR man, you know, speak softly and carry a big stick.Unlike Obama who is speaks softly and carries a little stick.

TR strentghened us overseas not weakened us. I doubt very much he apologized for us either.

As for TR, well;TR was the guy who on San Juan Hill after shooting a guy in the belly while running up the hill cackled with glee and excitement at the experience OF SHOOTING ANOTHER HUMAN BEING!. War is/was war no doubt. However, his own record of how great he thought shooting someone else was, is something I never could forget about him. Could anyone imagine the same of say Grant, or Eisenhower?

Ans , you know the same guy whose pleasure was to go around the world and kill animals for sport.

I'm glad that my impressions were of value...there are things I did not quite get much into...perhaps for another time. BTW, it was Crafty who encouraged me to join in the discussion...I tend to avoid political discussions, by and large.

As for Obama, I am aware of the greatly differing views that different Americans have of him, though lately I think that even his supporters wish he was doing a better job. Yes, Americans are viewed in a more positive light in Greece because of his "less forceful" foreign policy. I don't think Greeks believe that America is becoming timid; Greeks are well aware that America is quite ready to use its military muscle, if it felt it had to. But to this day, Greeks remain suspicious of American intentions - especially after the Kosovo issue...but then I am rambling in a thread meant for Anti-Semitism..sorry..over and out..and again, thanks for the positive feedback.

US Navy cruiser anchored in Mississippi for a week's shore leave. The first evening, the ship's Captain received the following note from the wife of a wealthy plantation owner:

"Dear Captain, Thursday will be my daughter Melinda's Debutante Ball. I would like you to send four well-mannered, handsome, unmarried officers in their formal dress uniforms to attend the dance.. They should arrive promptly at 8:00 PM prepared for an evening of polite Southern conversation. They should be excellent dancers, as they will be the escorts of lovely refined young ladies. One last point: No Jews, please!!

"Sending a written message by his own yeoman, the captain replied: Madam, thank you for your invitation. In order to present the widest possible knowledge base for polite conversation, I am sending four of my best and most prized officers. One is a lieutenant commander, and a graduate of Annapolis with an additional Masters degree from MIT in fluid technologies and ship design. The second is a Lieutenant, one of our helicopter pilots, and a graduate of Northwestern University in Chicago , with a BS in Aeronautical Engineering. His Masters Degree and PhD. in Aeronautical and Mechanical Engineering are from Texas Tech University and he is also an astronaut candidate The third officer is also a lieutenant, with degrees in both computer systems and information technology from SMU and he is awaiting notification on his Doctoral Dissertation from Cal Tech. Finally, the fourth officer, also a lieutenant commander, is our ship’s doctor, with an undergraduate degree from the University of Georgia and his medical degree is from the University of North Carolina . We are very proud of him, as he is also a senior fellow in Trauma Surgery at Bethesda .

Upon receiving this letter, Melinda’s mother was quite excited and looked forward to Thursday with pleasure. Her daughter would be escorted by four handsome naval officers without peer (and the other women in her social circle would be insanely jealous).

At precisely 8:00 PM on Thursday, Melinda's mother heard a polite rap at the door which she opened to find, in full dress uniform, four handsome, smiling black officers. Her mouth fell open. But pulling herself together, she stammered, "There must be some mistake."

"No, Madam," said the first officer. "Captain Goldberg never makes mistakes."

As morally wrong as it is to murder innocent adults, mankind seems to have a built-in revulsion against killing babies. If a baby does not evoke any tenderness, if a baby is regarded as worthy of being deliberately hurt or murdered, we know that we have encountered a degree of evil that few humans -- even among murderers -- can relate to.

That is why what Palestinian terrorists did to a Jewish family on the West Bank this past weekend deserves far more attention than it received.

Normally, Palestinian atrocities get little attention -- certainly far less attention than Israeli apartment-building on the West Bank receives. But this particular atrocity got even less attention than usual because the world was focused on the terrible tsunami that hit Japan.

On Friday night, Palestinian terrorists slipped into a Jewish settlement, entered a home and stabbed the father, the mother and three of their children to death: an 11-year-old, a 4-year-old, and a three-month-old baby.

In order to understand what those actions mean, a seemingly separate incident needs to be recalled: the prolonged sexual attack by up to 200 Egyptian men on Lara Logan, chief foreign affairs correspondent for CBS News, in Tahrir Square, Cairo a few weeks ago. It was reported that after stripping her naked and then molesting and beating her, the men kept shouting, "Jew, Jew!"

The two incidents tell the same tale. In much of the Arab Muslim and some of the non-Arab Muslim world today (such as Iran), "Jew" is not a person. "Jew" is not even merely the enemy. In fact, there is no parallel on Earth to what "Jew" means to a hundred million, perhaps hundreds of millions of Muslims.

Think of any conflict in the world -- Pakistan-India, China-Tibet, North Korea-South Korea, Tamil-Sinhalese. There are some deep hatreds there, and atrocities have been committed on one or both sides of those conflicts. But in none of those conflicts nor anywhere else is there something equivalent to what "Jew" means to millions of Muslims.

There really is only one historical parallel, and it, too, involved the word "Jew." The Nazis also succeeded in fully dehumanizing the word "Jew." Thus, for Nazism, it was as important (if not more so) to murder Jewish babies and children -- often through as cruel a means as possible (being burned alive, buried alive or thrown up in the air and impaled on bayonets) -- as it was to murder Jewish adults.

The human being does not have to learn to hate. It seems to come pretty naturally. Nor does the human being have to learn to murder, steal or rape. These, too, seem to be in the natural human repertoire of evils.

But the human being does have to learn to hate children and babies, and to regard the torture and murder of them as morally desirable acts. It takes years of work to undo normal protective human attitudes toward children.

That is precisely what the Nazis did and what significant parts of the Muslim world have done to the word "Jew." To them, the Jew is not just sub-human; the Jew -- and his or her children -- is sub-animal.

Palestinian and other Muslim spokesmen and their supporters on the left argue that this unique hatred is the fruit of Israeli policies, not decades of Nazi-like Jew-hatred saturating Islamic education, television, radio and the mosque. But for this to be true, unique hatred would have to be matched by unique evil on the Israelis' part.

Yet, among the injustices of the world, what the Israelis have done to the Palestinians would not even register on a moral Richter scale. The creation of Israel engendered about 750,000 Palestinian refugees (and an equal number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries) and the death of perhaps 10 thousand Palestinian Arabs. And all of that came about solely because Arab armies invaded Israel in order to destroy it at birth. Yet, when Pakistan was yanked from India and established as a Muslim state at the very same time Israel was established, that act engendered 12.5 million Muslim refugees and about a million dead Muslims (and similar numbers of Hindu refugees and deaths). Why then doesn't "Hindu" equal "Jew" in the Muslim lexicon of hate?

Here are some answers in brief:

First, many groups have been hated, but none have been hated as deeply as the Jews.

Second, Jew-hatred is often exterminationist, which is why Jew-hatred has little in common with ethnic bigotry, religious intolerance or even racism. Rarely, if ever, do any of them seek the extermination of the disliked or hated group.

Third, exterminationist Jew-haters are particularly dangerous people. Non-Jews who do not recognize Jew-hatred as the moral cancer it is are fools. Nazism was born in Jew-hatred and led to the death of more than 40 million non-Jews. Islamic terror started against Israeli Jews but has spread around the world. More fellow Muslims have now been murdered by Islamic terror than Jews have.

That is why the tsunami the world ignored this weekend -- the Palestinian-Arab-Muslim flood of Jew-hatred -- is the one that will prove far more dangerous to it than the Japanese one it understandably focused on.

"First, many groups have been hated, but none have been hated as deeply as the Jews."

Sadly, I don't doubt this statement. And, while this article focuses on Muslims, it does not only pertain to Muslims. Look at Europe. Even America. There is a large wide diverse group that "hates" Jews.

But why? I mean why have the Jewish people been hated by seemingly all other groups?

I simply don't understand. Among the Jewish people I know personally, some are good friends, and someirritate me. For me, it's about the same ratio as most groups; nothing distinctive about being Jewish. And I don't "hate" any group.

But why, throughout history do Jews seem to be consistently hated? I simply don't understand why.Any thoughts?

Louis Farrakhan, the reliably anti-Semitic leader of the Nation of Islam, claimed Tuesday at the Nation’s annual meeting in the Chicago area that Jews and Zionists were “trying to push the US into war” and — in a revival of hoary anti-Semitic clichés — that “Zionists dominate the government of the United States of America and her banking system.”

The elderly Jew-hater also directed a warning to the president not to move against the man Farrakhan called “my brother and my friend,” Muammar Gaddafi: “President Obama, if you allow the Zionists to push you, to mount a military offensive against Gaddafi and you go in and kill him and his sons, as you did with Saddam Hussein and his sons… I’m warning you this is a Libyan problem, let the Libyans solve their problem among themselves.”

Farrakhan at the same time denied that he was – despite appearances — “just somebody who’s got something out for the Jewish people.” Farrakhan directly addressed those who might get such a crazy idea: “You’re stupid.” And he explained: “Do you think I would waste my time if I did not think it was important for you to know Satan? My job is to pull the cover off of Satan so that he will never deceive you and the people of the world again.”

A rational analyst would be hard-pressed to explain why Zionists might wish the U.S. to embark upon a military operation to remove Gaddafi, when the successor to his odious regime is likely to be an Islamic state that is even more virulently anti-America and anti-Israeli than that of the aging rock star who is still quixotically holding the fort in Tripoli. But Farrakhan’s anti-Jewish conspiracy paranoia is not entirely irrational, either: it is founded in a book revered by Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam, albeit not in a wholly conventional fashion: the Koran.

Neither Sunni nor Shi’ite Muslim authorities generally regard the Nation of Islam as an orthodox expression of Islam; nevertheless, its adherents identify themselves as Muslims and read the Koran. And the Koran, whether or not it really is, in the words of Michael Potemra, Deputy Managing Editor of National Review magazine, “one of the loveliest books ever written…full of spiritual wisdom,” is undeniably full of venomous hatred toward the Jews.

The Koran puts forward a clear, consistent image of the Jews: they are scheming, treacherous liars and the most dangerous enemies of the Muslims. This theological tenet provides a basis for Islam’s deeply rooted anti-Semitism, and illuminates Farrakhan’s latest outburst. For the Koran depicts the Jews as a gang of corrupt, deceitful cut-throats.

The Koran condemns Jews for speaking “a lie concerning Allah knowingly” (3:75). The Jews are “men who will listen to any lie” (5:41). They also spread them: “There is a party of them who distort the Scripture with their tongues, that ye may think that what they say is from the Scripture, when it is not from the Scripture. And they say: It is from Allah, when it is not from Allah; and they speak a lie concerning Allah knowingly” (3:78). They are so deceitful that they dare to distort “Divine Revelation and Allah’s Sacred Books. Allah says in this regard: ‘Therefore woe be unto those who write the Scripture with their hands and then say, ‘This is from Allah,’ that they may purchase a small gain therewith. Woe unto them for that their hands have written, and woe unto them for that they earn thereby’” (2:79).

The Jews in the Koran are so obstinate before Allah that they refuse to believe in the prophets Allah has sent them, even Moses, telling him: “O Moses! We will not believe in thee till we see Allah plainly” (2:55). They are hypocrites (2:14; 2:44) who “grow arrogant” before the messengers of Allah, refusing to believe in some and killing others (2:87). They are so arrogant and haughty that they “claimed to be the sons and of Allah and His beloved ones” – a fault they share with the Christians: “The Jews and Christians say: We are sons of Allah and His loved ones” (5:18).

The Jews also try to lead others away from the truth: “Many of the People of the Scripture long to make you disbelievers after your belief, through envy on their own account, after the truth hath become manifest unto them” (2:109). They rejoice in others’ ill-fortune: “If a lucky chance befall you, it is evil unto them, and if disaster strike you they rejoice thereat” (3:120).

And so when Farrakhan refers to Jews as Satanic deceivers, he is actually being more moderate than the Koran itself. For Farrakhan and his ilk, eliminating the Jewish state is not just a foreign policy goal; it is a religious imperative.

Per your request, I watched this morning; or at least two thirds of it. I don't have the time for the full video and it seems a bit redundant. I am usually not a fan of small snippets of quotes taken from various individuals and various times tomake a story. Nor do I know who are the speakers; although regardless of who they are, what they say is vile and wrong.

It is disturbing, but not entirely surprising. Muslims in the Middle East blindly hate Jews.I doubt if this comes as a surprise to anyone.

My question earlier, which no one seems to want to address is why are Jews hated so deeply throughout the world by non Muslims?